UC Berkeley walls off People’s Park as it waits for court decision on student housing project

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and TERRY CHEA
Associated Press

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Police officers in riot gear have removed activists from Berkeley’s People’s Park and crews began placing double-stacked shipping containers to wall off the historic park overnight Thursday. The move comes as the University of California, Berkeley waits for a court ruling it hopes will allow it to build much-needed student housing. UC Berkeley officials say authorities arrested seven people on misdemeanor trespassing charges, and two of them had additional charges of failure to disperse. The university wants to use the park to build a housing complex that would accommodate about 1,100 UC Berkeley students and 125 formerly homeless people.